Shopping for shingles

Our contractor starts on the roof today, so we've been shopping for shingles. I don't think people think too much about shingles. I certainly never did.

Where to go? The little local dude will deliver. You get a better selection if you go to a specialty place, but we'd have to rent a truck and unload it ourselves.
What colour? I really wanted the cedar, but you can't get it in all the years.
What style - 3 tab, laminated or stepped? 3 tab is the norm, cheapest and easiest to put up, but gee that laminated looks nice.
How many years - 25, 30, 35, 40 or 50? Do we REALLY want to have to worry about reshingling the cottage in our lifetime?
Zinc strip anyone? You know, that little strip that retards the growth of moss on cottage roofs. But, if you get the 50 year, you don't need the zinc strip as granules are imbedded.

Oh my, such choices. Bill says, I like the 3 tab. I say, I like the laminated, besides we can get it in 50 year with those little granules. Bill says, you can't get cedar in 50 year.

I struggled with that one. I really liked the cedar, but then thought, hey, its a roof, lets go with 50 year. I think he was relieved actually. The price difference is minimal and Bill really, REALLY didn't want to have to worry about reshingling in our lifetime. So, one truck and 2 tons of shingles later.....

As luck will have it

We had a close call this weekend. But we were lucky, alot of luckys. There were severe storms in the area and a very large tree along the road came down right onto the hydro line, pulling it down. It took out all the power to the cottages. Luckily, Roger, our trusty neighbor was around, and called Hydro. Several hours later they still hadn't come to fix it, so he took the boat onto the lake to see how the other cottages were faring. While he was on the lake, he luckily noticed the power to his cottage was back on, even though no Hydro trucks had come to fix the line.

From the lake, Roger could see the whole hillside light up. The broken line was in a pine tree at the end of our driveway and had started it on fire. The juice was flowing and causing all sorts of arching and such (why it didn't trip and cause power to go out again, I don't know). But I guess it really lit up the sky.

Apparently, at the end of Green Forest Way, the hydro truck took a left onto Almost Lane (left continues with Green Forest Way where we are). Since they didn't see any downed lines, they went back and turned the power back on, never bothering to check further.

Luckily Roger was able to call 911 using his cell phone (which ironically usually does not work there, but miraculously did "just this once"). Additionally, 911 didn't have our road registered in their files and didn't know where we were or what to do with us (we don't have regular phone service out there, so no phones, no 911 service) . Eventually they patched him through to the fire department and 3 trucks came roaring out (after initially getting lost). Lucky again????

They called hydro, had them cut the power, put out the fire, cut it all up and left it. It was after 1 am before they left. When we came up on Sunday, we wondered why there was a burnt tree stump and huge cut up tree at the end of our driveway.

Rog came over when he saw us up there yesterday (Wednesday) and filled us in. The whole area had gotten lots of rain the few days before this happened. Enough to soak everything enough that even though a substantial fire started (there was luckily no wind) it did not catch in the surrounding trees. There is a alot of downed and dried trees in the woods. Had luck turned the other way for us (all) that whole side of the lake would have gone up.

And you know what else? Unbeknownst to us, all this happened Saturday. Since we didn't even have a roof yet, we had not put fire insurance on the cottage until Monday. Yup, we were lucky.

and on to the roof!!!!

Most of our time this week was anxiously waiting for the inspector to get back with us. Finally he did and gave us the go ahead. So Saturday we spent the day finishing the sheathing and talked to two more contractors about putting the roof on. The sheathing for this part should have been quite easy. We only had to use one section of scaffolding. Our goal was to finish early and have the rest of the weekend to rest. But nothing goes easy, and the reciprocal saw I was using to cut out the windows died. From then on I had to use the jigsaw cutting from the front, so had to draw where the window was and then cut away double checking to be sure I had it right. And then the blade for the jigsaw broke and then we didn't have another, and then....

So we worked until after 7. So much for a short day. But at least we got it finished and didn't have to go up again on Sunday. So we can now concentrate on home stuff that has been neglected.

We should have bids and make a decision some time this week. It will be nice to have the building protected from the elements. As it is now we think about potential water damage every time it rains.

In the meantime, we are as far as we can go in work until the roof is done. Hopefully, by the time we leave for the wedding we'll have a contract with a contractor and maybe even they will have started. After that, it's the windows.

when in doubt, put in another stud

This was a pretty easy weekend for us. We worked on the rest of the sheathing and talked to contractors about putting on a roof.

A couple of contractors came out and will give us bids. They seemed pretty impressed with our work so far. While talking to one, Bill said, "with weekend carpenters, you're learning as you go and hope that you don't make any costly errors... so...when in doubt, put in another stud."

In the meantime, we really can't go any further until the inspector comes out and gives us the green light (or alternately tells us what changes we have to make). So, we're hoping that the extra stud theory holds true.